


A Lesson in Clairvoyance

by BackgroundWhimsy



Category: Brütal Legend, Grim Fandango, Monkey Island, Psychonauts (Video Games), Puzzle Agent (Video Games), Sam & Max
Genre: Bruised Ribs, Crossover, Gen, Wildcards AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-27
Updated: 2019-12-27
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:00:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21984814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BackgroundWhimsy/pseuds/BackgroundWhimsy
Summary: Early on in their careers as partners with the Psychonauts, Eddie and Manny get along just fine. But, when Eddie's bad habit of hiding his injuries strains their relationship and his partner's ability to trust him, the two are given an opportunity to try and understand each other's perspectives just a little bit better.
Kudos: 7





	A Lesson in Clairvoyance

**Author's Note:**

> This is set pretty early on in Manny and Eddie's relationship as partners. Fun fact, Nelson was in this until I realized right after doing the final proofread that if it was this early in the timeline he wouldn't be a Psychonaut yet. And then I had the pleasure of scouring the whole fic all over again to erase him from existence.

It was a quiet Tuesday morning that saw 2 out of 5 Wildcards ready and waiting on a specialized combat training. Every so often, classes were offered to all Psychonauts agents to improve their skills, and the past few weeks had seen tutorials on everything from telekinesis to invisibility. Sam and Max were still out of town, doing whatever it was freelance detectives do, but Guybrush, Eddie, and Manny had taken full advantage of the opportunity to brush up on some of the powers that tended to fall by the wayside. At the moment, a large group had gathered outside one of the training rooms and was waiting to be admitted.

"Hey, did you guys see the storm last night?" The agent was, of course, referring to the thunderstorm that had rolled in soon after sundown and raged until almost dawn.

"How could we miss it?? Elaine and I stayed up watching the lightning for hours, that storm was crazy!" Guybrush answered, friendly as always.

"Tell me about it," Manny said, a little grumpily. "Could hardly sleep with all the thunder, and on top of that it knocked out the power for a little while."

At last, it seemed the instructors were ready and opened the doors. As various agents started heading into the training room, Guybrush looked around before asking, "Hey, where's Eddie? He did say he was coming, right?"

Manny… didn't know. Actually, his partner should have been here already. He must have gotten held up by something.

Not wanting to keep Guybrush waiting, Manny said, "Why don't you go on ahead, I'm gonna go see what happened to him."

With that, Manny turned and started walking towards the first place he'd be likely to find his partner, the dorms. Once there, Manny knocked on Eddie's door. When he got no response, he telepathically called out to him, _Eddie, you in there?_

The response he got back was garbled and uncoordinated. He was still asleep then; the power outage last night must have turned off his alarm. Using the spare key Eddie had given him, Manny let himself in and strode across the dorm with the intent to shake the roadie out of bed. What he saw when he reached the bedroom, however, gave him pause.

Eddie had propped himself against the headboard with some pillows to be able to sleep upright. There was a bottle of over the counter pain medication and a glass of water on the side table, and the shallow way Eddie was breathing spoke of injured ribs. If Manny still had a face, his eyebrows would have been up at his hairline. _Eddie was hurt and didn't tell anyone?_

That was… a little disappointing. They were supposed to be partners, weren't they? Frustrated, Manny had walked over to the bedside to wake him up and demand some answers when Eddie coughed in his sleep. The flash of pain across his face stopped the skeleton in his tracks. His displeasure momentarily forgotten, he took a moment to consider the situation.

Even if he did wake him up, there was no way Eddie was going to today's combat training. Or rather, no way Manny was going to allow it. Standing there with his hand hovering over Eddie's shoulder, he was struck with the beginnings of an idea. Maybe... maybe he could use this as a teaching experience and start dismantling this kind of behavior.

Returning his hand to his side, Manny started looking around for Eddie's notebook. Eventually he found it on a table near the door. This was where Eddie took notes on things he needed to remember, and most importantly it was where Manny would find today's list of things to do. Flipping to the last page he'd written on, Manny could see the tasks written in amongst various doodles of Ormagödden and other metal-esque sketches.

Tucking the notebook under his arm, Manny left Eddie's dorm as quietly as he’d come in. He had work to do.

&&&&&

When Eddie woke up, it was because of the sharp ache in his ribcage. _Pain meds must have worn off._ He'd gotten checked out at the infirmary, but they'd said it wasn't too serious and, in any case, all he could really do about it was take it easy. _Still,_ he thought as he took the pills from his nightstand, _I've got work to do._

It wasn't until he started to get up that he realized the sunlight coming in through the window was much brighter than it should have been for early morning. More importantly, he’d woken up on his own and not to the sound of his alarm. Dread creeping over him, he glanced at his clock and saw the numbers blinking unhelpfully at him. _What time was it??!_

Eddie lunged off the bed, swearing emphatically, and - _aaahh, ribs -_ carefully but hurriedly started getting dressed. In a flurry of denim, leather, and spikes, he also glanced around for his notebook. His agitation increased when he couldn't find it; he needed it, where was it?? He could've sworn it was _right here_ when he went to bed… He must've left it at his desk yesterday.

Hopping out the door, still tying one of his shoes, Eddie made a beeline for the Wildcards' office area.

&&&&&

Overall, Manny was pretty pleased with the number of things he’d managed to get done in just a few hours. There were a lot of easy things like forms and files Manny could prepare so that all Eddie had to do was fill in the portions that required his testimony or signatures. Other tasks could be done over the phone or by delegating them to one of the interns to get started. He'd crossed out anything to do with Guybrush or himself, as after he'd explained that his idiot partner wasn’t feeling well they’d both agreed to either deal with things on their own or push them off until Eddie was feeling better.

Despite his best efforts though, there were still some tasks that were beyond him. For example, he didn't know who Mangus was or what reviewing a light plot entailed, so that was just going to have to wait for Eddie to deal with it. 

If he was being honest with himself, this had started out as a spite project. Eddie didn't want to ask his own partner for help? _Fine_. Then he was going to see just how helpful Manny could be. However, after seeing the almost overwhelming number of things Eddie had set out for himself he could understand why the roadie might not let on that he wasn't at full strength. He didn’t have time to be anything less than 100%. 

Still. It was no excuse not to tell him about an injury like this. They were supposed to trust each other, and at the very least it was his right to know if his partner was wounded. Secrets like that could cause serious accidents out in the field.

Maybe… maybe he was being too harsh. Maybe he'd gotten worked up over nothing. Maybe this injury was very recent, and Eddie just hadn't had time to tell him about it. Of course, that would mean it'd happened sometime within the last 12 to 16 hours, but who knows. It was still, _technically,_ possible.

Manny stacked the files that still required Eddie's personal attention and set the notebook on top of them. He set the whole thing on Eddie's desk, then returned to his own to continue working on some of his own paperwork. He'd just have to wait and see what Eddie chose to tell him when he got up.

&&&&&

Finally reaching the office he shared with Manny, Eddie tried to look as nonchalant as possible as he entered the room. Glancing at his desk, he could see his notebook sitting on top of a stack of paperwork he had yet to get started on. Walking deliberately normally to his desk, Eddie sat down and reached for the worn composition book.

"Afternoon Eddie. We missed you at the combat training this morning, is everything okay?" Manny had looked over when he came in, and greeted his partner unconcernedly.

Rubbing the back of his neck, Eddie answered sheepishly, "Oh, yeah, no, I'm fine. Sorry about this morning, my alarm never went off so I only just got up. I hope you didn't wait around too long…"

Manny still appeared fairly indifferent, but now he also looked just a tad… unimpressed. 

Eddie picked up his notebook and flipped to his to-do list, hoping that most of today's tasks were simple enough he could catch up on them before it got to be too late at night. He was absolutely _floored_ when he saw that many of them were already crossed off, and a note below them that said: 

_Tell me next time. -Manny_

Eddie slowly looked up from his notebook, eyes wide. Manny had raised an eyebrow at him, smoking calmly. 

"I…. ah…" He had no idea what to say. This was… so _completely_ unexpected that Eddie's brain was blue-screening. "When did… how… I…"

Manny watched the gears turn in his partner's head as he tried to figure out how to respond. It would have been highly entertaining if it hadn't been caused by Eddie's apparent inability to admit when he could use some help.

At last, he finally settled on a simple, quiet, "Thank you." 

"You're welcome Eddie."

They sat in silence, staring at each other, before Manny spoke up again. "So how'd it happen?"

"At the, ah, marksmanship workshop the other day. Someone wasn't paying attention to what they were doing, and I got caught in the crossfire. The doctor said it wasn't too bad though! Just bruised, not broken, so they should heal up pretty quickly." Eddie had started his statement hesitantly, but by the end of it he was emphatically trying to reassure Manny that he was fine; doing damage control, like the skeleton would have thought less of him over an accident. Like an injury like this didn't even matter. _Like bruised ribs didn't take almost a month to heal properly._

"Quickly, huh? How soon is quickly? A couple weeks? Or more when you crack through one of them overexerting yourself?" Manny's tone was sharper than he'd intended, but his frustration was starting to get the better of him.

Eddie wasn't having it. "Thanks for the concern _Dad_ , but I'm not five years old. I can take care of myself; you think this is the first time I've gotten hurt like this?? There's nothing to be done about bruised ribs except _leave them alone_."

Eddie had come back at him just as intensely; he'd even gotten to his feet and started gesturing, but when his ribs sharply protested the sudden movements he was forced to sit back down and put pressure on them. That put a stop to the argument pretty quickly.

Thinking over his next words carefully, Manny just wanted Eddie to understand that he couldn't leave him out of the loop on things like this. After taking a drag of his cigarette, Manny tried again, more calmly this time.

"Look… it's not about the ribs. Your injuries are your business, and however you choose to recover is your decision. What's important here is that as your partner I need to know if you're hurt so I can plan accordingly. We're supposed to have each other's backs, so what am I supposed to think when I find out you didn't bother to tell me about something that wasn't even your fault?"

Eddie was rubbing his eyes as he carefully found the right words he needed. "It's… not that I didn't… think I could trust you with this. There just wasn't anything you could do about it, so it didn't seem important. I've gone to work with injuries like this before, and I know how to work around them, so it never occurred to me that it might be a problem this time." Eddie put his hand on his chin and thought for another moment. "I'm… sorry that I made it seem like I didn't trust you, because I do. You're the best partner I could have hoped for."

"Apology accepted. Just promise me you won't keep secrets like this anymore."

"...Deal." They returned to a more companionable silence. Eddie started dealing with the stack of files that needed his attention, and they continued working like that for a while until Manny realized Eddie had paused to do some kind of breathing exercise. He was taking slow, deliberately deep breaths and holding them for a few moments, filling his lungs to capacity each time.

"Doesn't that hurt?" Manny wondered aloud.

Eddie coughed, deeply, before answering, "Yes. But I'm more likely to get an infection if I don't."

"Are you… sure you shouldn't be in bed?" Manny asked, cautiously. He knew he said it wasn't any of his business, but the injury was still concerning.

"Yeah, I'm sure. Staying in one place for too long is a big no-no. The name of the game with injured ribs is to keep moving, so being in bed all day is actually worse for me than getting up and going to work." His exercises finished, Eddie picked up his pen and started reviewing another document.

Manny knew he should just leave him alone. They'd reached a truce, and Eddie had agreed not to hide things anymore. He couldn't help himself though; if there was any chance he could convince Eddie to avoid aggravating his ribs he was going to take it.

"What about your other job? Will this affect it too badly?"

Eddie set the file back on his desk and was looking at him with furrowed brows. For a moment Manny was worried he'd pushed too far and overstepped his bounds. They stared at each other for about a minute, before Eddie decisively scooted closer to the phone and dialed a number from his notebook.

"Hey, Mangus. Listen, I'm not coming in tonight, I need you to be in charge of rehearsal and the breakdown while I'm gone. Tell everyone to make sure they have their stuff packed so we can start loading the trucks on time tomorrow." Eddie paused, listening to the crew member's response. 

"Yeah, I'm fine. Something just came up, and I need to sort a few things out with my other job. We're still leaving on time, though. Nothing's changed just because I'm not there." Another pause. "Alright, see you tomorrow." He hung up.

Turning his attention back to Manny, he said, "There - a compromise. I'm gonna finish the rest of this paperwork, maybe also do a few other things, but I'm not going to do any tour prep tonight. And in return, you can stop bugging me about my ribs."

Eddie had gone and surprised the skeleton. "Deal."

And with that, the two returned to their paperwork as the silence fell once more.

&&&&&

By the end of the week, the two of them had almost completely forgotten about the incident. Eddie hadn't forgotten about his promise however, though it was several months before he actually needed to honor it.

The three Wildcards currently on-site were headed towards a mandatory training exercise of their choosing. In the absence of any new cases, they had to fill their hours out somehow, and one of those ways was to practice their powers.

They'd almost reached the training room, when Eddie stopped in the hallway like he'd forgotten something. "Oh! Hang on a second Manny, can I talk to you real quick?"

"Sure thing," addressing Guybrush, Manny continued, "Why don't you go on ahead? We'll catch up." After Guybrush had rounded the corner and entered the training room, Manny turned back to his partner. "So, what's goin' on?"

Eddie wasn't making eye contact as he presented his right wrist for Manny to see. "Just thought I oughta let you know, I sprained my wrist this morning."

Looking closer, Manny realized that Eddie had replaced his usual plain wristband with a black compression wrap; if it hadn't been pointed out to him, he probably never would have noticed.

Manny winced in sympathy. "Oooo, how'd that happen?"

"It's… not important," Eddie said, reticently, "but it shouldn't get in the way of the training today."

"Uh-huh… well, if you're sure." Manny was still curious, but he could tell pressing the matter wouldn't get him the answers he wanted. "Thanks for letting me know."

As they rejoined Guybrush in the training room, Manny could hear him calling to them and asking for their opinion on what they should focus their training on today. Considering his options carefully, Manny put his vote in for Clairvoyance. There was no point in making Eddie use his wrist if it could be avoided. His partner could dodge questions and hide injuries all he liked, but as long as Manny was on the job Eddie wasn't going to aggravate those wounds unnecessarily. 

If the roadie realized Manny was angling towards the less strenuous activity with a motive in mind, he didn't let on. Guybrush, oblivious to the situation, agreed to Clairvoyance with surprisingly little persuasion. Apparently, he wanted to see if he could keep a hallucination going while using another power at the same time, and then see what said hallucinations looked like through someone else's eyes; like he could fool himself from the perspective of someone else as if he wasn't concentrating on controlling every image he was about to see.

It was all very circular and headache-inducing, but if Guybrush wanted to make himself sick trying to invent a new flavor of madness that was his prerogative. As Eddie took his position as Guybrush's volunteer target, Manny took a moment to be pleased with the situation.

Eddie had chosen to trust him with an injury so trivial it would have healed up within days, and he had no reason for doing so other than because he knew Manny would want to know. Even though Guybrush was the only one actively practicing Clairvoyance at the moment, Manny couldn't help but feel he and Eddie were getting just a little bit better at seeing eye to eye. 

**Author's Note:**

> Eddie sprained his wrist because he started noodling on his guitar, wasn't paying attention to where he was going, and tripped and fell. He took all the weight on his right arm because his left was dedicated to keeping Clementine off the floor.


End file.
